E Dedicate this Book ΤΟ J. CRICHTON BROWNE, M.D., LL.D., F.R.S.E., Lord Chancellor's Visitor, IN GRATEFUL RECOGNITION OF HIS UNFAILING FRIENDSHIP AND SYMPATHY DURING ALL THE YEARS IN WHICH WE HAVE KNOWN EACH OTHER. PREFACE. ALL observers of contemporary society will admit that there is a very natural, though somewhat inordinate desire on the part of those who are not actually on the scene of the political conflict, to know something more of the character of the combatants than can be learned by merely perusing the reports of their speeches. The gratification of this curiosity now forms what seems to be one of the leading departments of modern journalism. Statesmen are either interviewed' in their homes, or painted with pre-Raphaelite accuracy in their official character. We are even told what they wear, and how they look when they are uttering certain words. Nor can it be denied that the information thus conveyed to us is altogether useless. The most trivial details are interesting, if they help to bring more clearly before the mind's eye the person and the character of an eminent man. I have not, in the following pages, sought to rival those graphic writers who have made it their business to describe for the benefit of the outer world, the clothes or the tricks of speech and gesture of living politicians. But I have endeavoured in writing these slight sketches, to bring those of whom I write somewhat more closely and clearly before the eyes of my readers, than they can be brought |